Glenn Goldberg

Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy visit the studio of painter Glenn Goldberg whose exhibition Other Places is on view at Jason McCoy Gallery, New York through August 16, 2013.

Discussing his work Goldberg notes: "I'm looking for a quiet, somewhat mysterious action in my work... philosophically I'm interested in the union of clarity and imprecision... things have to be correct in a very strange and particular way." Addressing art more broadly, he comments: "I like that important conversations can happen around works of art or actions... hopefully that's what we're most interested in, not... 'you're an amazing painter.' What does it mean to be a good painter or a good artist? I think we artists have to look at that and be open to redefining that whether it's subtly or at the core."

Jennifer Samet interviews painter Glenn Goldberg on the occasion of the exhibition Glenn Goldberg: Other Places at Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, on view through August 16, 2013.

Asked about references to the "devotional" in his paintings, Goldberg replies: "That is one of the greatest things in life: to be devoted to someone or something. At a certain point, I realized that, for myself, art really isn’t about self-expression, or explaining myself, although it is impossible to avoid that. And it really, ideally, doesn’t reflect on me. The best situation is when someone can look at a painting, but it is not important who made it. What’s important is that that painting exists. I want to get out of the way. My paintings are really not about me. I don’t know what one could tell about me if they look at these paintings, other than generalities. It is not about my story or my life; hopefully it’s about something bigger than that."

The February Review Panel held at the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York focused on painting. Faye Hirsch, Franklin Einspruch, Christina Kee, and David Cohen discuss recent exhibitions by four painters: Mary Corse, Ridley Howard, Glenn Goldberg, and Joyce Pensato.

Cohen notes that the panel "gathered four painters on this occasion [representing] a diversity of approach to painting both within abstraction and representation, and attitudes toward painting."

Kalm notes: "Embracing a more 'decorative' sensibility, and including compositional elements like perspective, horizon line and floral patterning, Goldberg is shacking up the formalistic parts of his practice, and presenting a new direction for the work which is at once more poetic and humanistically authentic."

Yau writes: "By wanting his paintings 'to take you toward, not away,' Goldberg rejects spectacle, entertainment, anything that tries to distract you from time passing, everyday life, and mortality. He has developed and honed a process that requires his precise and repeated attention, particularly with the application of the dots, and through this process he transforms his paintings into a record of an act of devotion as it comes into being... We cannot experience Goldberg's paintings fully until we recognize how they were made, and the quality of direct and simple attention that he has brought to bear on them. This is where their spirituality is most evident and most primeval."

Painters' Table

About Painters' Table

Edited by artist Brett Baker, Painters' Table highlights writing from the painting blogosphere as it is published and serves as a platform for exploring blogs that focus primarily on the subject of painting.